Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51131 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51131 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
That wipes the smile off my face. “I’m not timid. I’m just practical. If the payout doesn’t justify the risk, I probably won’t do it.”
“It just doesn’t seem like you take many chances.”
“I take chances when I think they’re worth it. Opening my own dance studio was a big risk,” I point out, though I’m not sure he knows I own the studio. He may just think I’m a teacher there, working for someone else. “I had to invest everything I had in that studio and just hope it would work out. It could have cost me everything if it hadn’t. I wouldn’t have been able to pay my bills or take care of Parker. We would’ve lost the house because I’m the sole earner and I wouldn’t have been able to pay the mortgage. It was immensely scary, but I took the leap.”
“Why?”
“Because…” I sigh, thinking back to that time. “Because I wanted more. I was unfulfilled in my other jobs. I’d worked several, but I wasn’t passionate about any of them. I was just toiling away for a paycheck. I’ve had to make a lot of sacrifices over the years due to circumstances and bad decisions. I just decided life is too short to spend all of it doing something you don’t love.”
Hayden nods. “That’s true. Life is short.”
I nod and look down, etching a swirl in the sand at the water’s edge. “That payoff was worth the risk, so I took it. Now, I make my living doing what I love, and I get to be my own boss. Parker dances, too, so I even bring her as my assistant when her schedule allows it. I wouldn’t be able to spend that extra time with her if I still had any of the crappy jobs I worked before.”
“It sounds like you construct your whole life around her. You and your daughter must be very close.”
“We are.” I’m hesitant to ask, but I’m also curious about his relationship with his son. “Are you and Landon close?”
He doesn’t answer right away. His gaze drifts to the ocean behind me. “We were once,” he finally says. “A long time ago.”
I step even more carefully here since I can tell his wife’s death is still a source of pain for him. “When your wife was alive?”
He nods. “My whole life with her was only possible because she was who she was. To be honest, I’m not sure I was cut out for family life, but it was easy to fall into it with her. She made it easy. I loved our life together. Then she was gone, and all of a sudden, it was up to me. I was lost in my own grief, so I couldn’t… I couldn’t pull anyone else out of theirs.”
Even from a distance, I can feel the pain radiating inside him. It bleeds out around him like a force field that should keep me away, but it pulls me in instead.
I feel no jealousy that he loved his wife so deeply, only sympathy because he lost someone who clearly meant the world to him.
I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do, but I can’t stand here and watch him hurt without at least trying to help. I step out of the water and slowly approach him. My touch is tentative as I reach my arms around him, just in case my comfort isn’t welcome, and he wants to push me away.
He doesn’t. He doesn’t return the hug, just stands there as solid as stone, but he lets me hug him. I press my head against his heart and listen to the strong thud of it beating in his chest.
Maybe I’ve been too hard on him about his son. Landon is a jerk, but they have both been through an unspeakable tragedy. Perhaps talking to him will work. Maybe he could even benefit from having a loving female influence in his life again. It doesn’t sound like Hayden has really opened up to anyone since his wife died.
I’m not sure I could be that for him, though. I know I could if not for our conflict of interest, but my heart isn’t big enough to wrap around anyone who is cruel to my daughter.
My heart is big enough to wrap around Hayden, though. I can feel it expanding and wrapping around him now, trying to absorb some of his pain so that at least he doesn’t have to feel it all alone.
“Your wife sounds like an incredible woman,” I say softly against his chest.
“She was.” He grabs the back of my sweater and uses it to tug me back. I think he’s pulling me away from him because he wants space at first, but then he wraps his hand around my neck, keeping me still so he can lean down to brush his lips against mine. “She would’ve liked you.”